Kerry Rupp didn’t expect anything less than a tough battle from the University of Louisiana-Monroe Saturday night and that’s exactly what he got.

“Any time you have rivalries playing each other, it’s going to be a hard fought game,” said the Louisiana Tech University head coach. “They scrapped hard against us and it took a great effort on the part of our guys to get this win.

“Every game is an important game, but it’s always a little more special and significant when you play schools in your region. So it’s a good win for us.”

SAN ANTONIO — Louisiana Tech picked up win No. 20 on the season, coming into San Antonio and grabbing an 87-74 victory over UTSA on Thursday night inside the Convocation Center.

Tech (20-6, 9-4 Conference USA) held a seven-point advantage at halftime, but found a great rhythm on offense and defense to push its lead up to 64-40 with 11:51 to go.
There was still a lot of fight in a UTSA (4-23, 2-12 C-USA) team with only four wins on the season as the Roadrunners clawed back to get the deficit down to eight with two minutes.

Postseason competition, regardless of what sport, means having to bring your “A” game and that certainly applies to the first and second rounds of the women’s NCAA basketball tournament to tip off on Sunday.